IS RECYCLED POLYESTER TRULY SUSTAINABLE?

Recycled polyester (rPET) is frequently positioned as a priority sustainable alternative by the textile industry, grounded in the promise of transforming plastic waste into design products. However, what appears to be a perfect cycle of renewal reveals, upon analysis, a more complex scenario. Although rPET production consumes significantly less energy than virgin polyester¹, we must question whether we are truly solving the plastic crisis or merely offering it a temporary extension of life before its final disposal.

THE LIFE CYCLE AND THE FRAGMENTATION OF CIRCULARITY

One of the most critical points lies in the diversion of materials that already have an efficient destination. Currently, the bottle-to-bottle recycling system is one of the few functional examples of a circular economy in the world. When the fashion industry absorbs these bottles for textile production, it practices what the market calls downcycling. Instead of allowing plastic to circulate indefinitely in its original form, fashion inserts it into a linear flow.

Global data indicates that less than 1% of all discarded clothing, regardless of the fiber, is effectively recycled into new garments². When looking specifically at polyester, the vast majority of what is labeled as "recycled" comes from PET bottles and not from repurposed fabrics³. Thus, by transforming a bottle into a T-shirt, we are, in practice, interrupting a continuous cycle and creating a product that, after use, will rarely have any reprocessing viability.

Material integrity also presents fundamental limitations. The mechanical recycling process degrades fiber quality by shortening polymer chains⁴. To ensure the fabric meets the strength standards required by the market, the addition of virgin polyester is common. Furthermore, there is a growing practice of blending recycled polyester with natural fibers, such as cotton or wool. These blends are primarily used to reduce costs and alter the technical performance of the garment. However, the environmental impact is significant: this combination results in an irreversible fibrous composition that renders both mechanical recycling and biological composting unfeasible⁵. This union makes fiber separation economically impractical, ensuring that the final destination for such a piece is the landfill.

THE INVISIBLE IMPACT

Beyond waste management, we face the persistent challenge of microplastics. Studies indicate that a single laundry load of synthetic clothing can release more than 700,000 microfibers into the water system⁶. Recycled polyester, in its chemical essence, behaves exactly like virgin polyester, as it does not biodegrade. These microscopic particles have already been detected in various ecosystems and even in the human bloodstream⁷, revealing that plastic pollution is a global health issue that the "recycled" label alone is incapable of neutralizing.

PERSPECTIVES FOR A CONSCIOUS CHOICE

Given this scenario, evaluating textile sustainability requires a perspective that goes beyond shallow definitions or immediate marketing appeals. When considering the acquisition of a material or garment, it is fundamental to weigh different perspectives:

Transparency in synthetic composition: The blend of recycled and virgin polyester is a common strategy to ensure textile durability; however, the lack of clear communication regarding this proportion masks reality. Such omission hides the fact that production remains intrinsically dependent on fossil fuel extraction.

The biological viability of blends: The fusion of synthetic and natural fibers results in materials that are nearly impossible to recover, preventing the garment's return to the organic cycle. Although this choice is often motivated by operational cost reduction, the environmental legacy is a waste product that allows for neither recycling nor composting.

The true extent of the cycle: An analysis of whether the chosen fiber promotes genuine circularity or merely postpones inevitable disposal. It is necessary to distinguish between temporary repurposing and a definitive solution for the material’s permanence in the environment.

The balance between origin and legacy: The necessary questioning of whether the immediate benefit of using plastic waste justifies the dispersal of synthetic microparticles that will persist in ecosystems for generations.

The depth of the solution: The understanding that material choice must address the root cause of waste, preventing new raw materials from serving merely as an ethical "free pass" for the maintenance of models based on unrestrained consumption.

Choosing a fabric is, therefore, an exercise of responsibility toward the legacy left to the environment and society. This process demands a gaze that transcends the product's surface, observing everything from the rigor of resource extraction to the fiber's capacity to return to the earth without leaving invisible traces. Above all, real sustainability is inseparable from transparency: the commitment to revealing the complexity behind every material, allowing elegance to be sustained by the clarity of information rather than the silence of industrial omissions.

 

REFERENCES
¹ TEXTILE EXCHANGE . Preferred Fiber & Materials Market Report. Study indicating an approximate 59% reduction in energy consumption in rPET production.
² ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION . A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning fashion's future. Report on the low global textile recycling rate.
³ CHANGING MARKETS FOUNDATION. Synthetics Anonymous. Analysis of the fashion industry's dependence on PET bottles and the low use of textile recycling for textiles.
⁴ SCIENCEDIRECT. Mechanical Recycling of Polyethylene Terephthalate. Technical articles on the thermomechanical degradation of polymer chains during reprocessing.
⁵ MISTRA FUTURE FASHION. Fiber-to-fiber recycling: Challenges and opportunities . Study on the infeasibility of chemical separation of synthetic-natural mixtures.
⁶ PLYMOUTH UNIVERSITY. Release of synthetic microfibers during household laundering. Quantitative study on fiber release through washing.
⁷ ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL. Discovery and qualification of plastic particle pollution in human blood. Pioneering research on the presence of polymers in human blood.